How do you pay for things?

northerner999

I have some cash in notes in my wallet most of the time, but try to leave this untouched. It's for emergencies, vending machines at car parks or if I'm in the pub with friends.

I have a credit card I pay off in full, this card covers pretty much everything I spend - food, petrol, Council Tax and means I have a pretty accurate record of my outgoings over a month - it's a great way to quickly check I'm on budget, and would flag up any immediate overspending. I prefer to put my groceries on there because once I break into a note, the change seems to disappear quickly and before I know it it's back to the ATM for more. The vending machines at work used to take a small fortune off me (I was paying £1 for a machine coffee, when we have a perfectly good kitchen to make your own, and because it was in change it didn't feel like it was a lot).

It's an M&S card, too, which gives me points, when then go back into a food shop at a future point (the only time I go upmarket and shop in M&S rather than cheaper stores!).

My emergency fund is an ISA, if I have a big spend coming up I pay for it on my card as normal then, once I have the bill, transfer the amount from that into my current account before paying it off. Gives me a bit longer earning the meagre interest they hand out these days, while keeping spending together (I like simple, rather than complicated!). For example, my car is in for its MOT and a service on Thursday. If there are any extra costs for repairs, the full lot will go on my card and any budget shortfall by the time I pay the bill will come out of savings.


There's no right or wrong way, I am controlled/confident with my spending so know I won't over-spend. When I was struggling to get control of my debt, I used cash or a debit card as I needed the total on the cards to come down. Due to making payments to clear cards as the 0% came to an end, I am back to using the c-card to ensure I don't end up running out of cash in the current account.

FireWyrm

I have a number of accounts that can be considered as envelopes. I do have a money box as well for some savings (mostly just basic discretionary stuff) as I dont like having large amounts of money in the house. I pay all bills on the first of the month from one account and then stipends are sent to other accounts to cover spending in categories that are covered there. Christmas is a bill like any other and money is sent to a savings account for that purpose and not touched until it is cashed out at the beginning of December. Recently, our energy DD was lowered by the energy company from £100 per month to £60. Instead of counting that money as 'to spend' I just sent the other £40 to a savings account and have done for the last 10 months. When this quarter is over and the bill comes in, there will be plenty of cash to cover any shortfall it any. Otherwise, it counts as part of the 'buffer' against adversity.

I use YNAB to keep track of all the miriad little pots of money in all the accounts and only spend from those categories. I know what I am going to buy and how much it is going to cost before I set foot out the door.

I do have a credit card and this is used for spends where I want to take advantage of the consumer rights protection only. Otherwise, it sits there gathering dust. Other credit cards are carrying debts at 0% and I dont even know the PIN for them - they cant be used that way.

I have some small amount of cash in a wallet (£20) for the odd carparking and perhaps a quick bite at the local market, but otherwise, I try to keep it untouched as much as possible. All food is bought and paid for once a month and is very carefully budgeted and planned. There are no surprise trips to the shops and that way, money is not frivolously wasted.

All spending is accounted for down to the penny. I firmly believe that it is the only way to truly control your finances.

bellaboo86

I tend to use my cards. If I take notes out I find I fritter it away. As soon as I get paid I pay money on my credit card, transfer into savings and transfer my money for the month (food, petrol etc) into a different account.

matttye

Credit card and pay back in full. Only exception is when there's a fee for using a credit card.

JES_F1

I mainly use my debit card and tend to only pay cash for my lunch at work and a couple of other small bits and bobs. I rarely take out more than £100 in cash over a month.

About four months ago, I got my first credit card since being debt free. I've used it for a few online purchases and paid it off in full each month.

I keep a spreadsheet to record my outgoings so that I know exactly what I've got left and regularly check my accounts online or using the phone apps. I'm probably rather OCD about this!

I have a couple of e-saver accounts for short- and long-term saving, e.g. Christmas, a club membership, short breaks, replacing my ancient laptop, emergencies.

borich

Spread sheet. I transfer all my bills into my bills account on pay day. Then I put all my food and fuel onto credit card which is paid off each month in full. I have a budget for food fuel which I stick to. I then stash the remainder of monies into saving account. Finally the wife and I have 60 quid a week pocket money each which we can so what we want with.

edinburghlad

I use YNAB (you need a budget). Basically it's the best budgeting application I've ever used. It's mindset is you only budget with the money available to you now.

When you get paid and enter it takes YNAB, you then allocate the money to different categories eg groceries, fuel, rent, Xmas. When allocating the budget, the golden rule is "what do I need to do with this money until I next get paid."
It makes you think about the big one off expenses in advance and it helps you plan for the future events such as Xmas, birthdays, car insurance ect by putting money aside each week/ month.

One you have YNAB up and running there is no requirement to worry about paying by cash, credit card, debit card ect as you have allready allocated the money as per of your budget and therefore is sitting in your current account ready to be used as cash, debit card transaction or transferred to pay off your credit cards.

I would recommend watching some of the only videos and giving it a go via the 30day free trial. Lots of people on Mse swear by it and would never got back. :money:

bilko89

Personally, I use a spreadsheet which I update and monitor at work (get in an hr early due to train times).

I have my monthly wage on the left and all my outgoings, including debts that I have agreed monthly repayments for on the right. Whatever is left can be used for birthdays, put away for christmas etc...

One thing that helped was when I initiated the spreadsheet, I looked to see what I could afford each month to pay off my £5K debts I had. I used a website http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx which is great. You tell it your creditors and your balances with them, and tell it how much you can afford per month and it will work out how much to pay them per month. The snowballing method has really worked out for me and I was delighted all my creditors had agreed to my plan.

I'm now down to 3.2K and on course to be debt free by December . I've never tried the envelopes but it seems an interesting idea!

Teacher2

"If it's the credit card is it only for groceries? What about clothes, furnishings, presents?
What about non-monthly costs like Christmas? "

I hope you do not mind my mentioning this but, if you are trying to get straight and financially secure, presents and Christmas are a bit of a luxury.

Clearly, if you have children, they need their birthday and Christmas presents although even in this case you should manage their expectations to a realistic level and include expensive necessities like new clothes and shoes.

In the meantime you should let your friends and family know you are trying to get straight and do a mixture of the following:-

-have low limits for mutual presents, say, no more than a fiver or a tenner
-do 'Secret Santas' where you draw names out of a hat and ONLY buy for the one person whose name you draw
-have family (parents, grandparents) give you money for birthdays and Christmas to pay off any bills/debts you have
-give 'time' rather than money, for example, make a token for some babysitting or car cleaning or decorating
-make presents like cakes, puddings or jars of preserves (my daughter was hard up and made cushions for all of her friends from beautiful scrap material from bin ends and charity shop dresses and then appliqued their initials on them.)
-use tokens like Tesco's Clubcard vouchers or Boots points to buy presents. Boots do 342 offers on gifts at Christmas too.

I think you will find that most people wil be really sympathetic and if they are not, ignore them. You might well find that others are relieved to be able to take the expensive present giving down a notch as expectations have become quite a burden in these days of austerity.

Anyway, good luck.

Puddylove

I'm a simple soul, and I get paid on the same date every month and get a set wage from my full time role. I do part time contracts which can vary a lot, so can't do a running budget.
I set up DDs for utilities, then manually pay whatever I choose towards my three CC debts, and my savings.
I leave myself £600 a month for food, petrol, horse feed and drugs, basically everything that isn't a utility, and try to just withdraw cash every few days.
It's not the tightest budgeting system in the world - but it doesn't have to be as there's a fair amount of wriggle room between my pay, and my outgoings, and I've always managed my money sensibly.
I dislike using credit cards for daily stuff as I can't track them well enough (one of mine isn't even online).